Episode 3: Prisoner/Escort
Prisoner/Escort is the third episode of Kiddy Grade. In this episode, Éclair and Lumiere had orders to arrest the criminal Drake and transport him from the planet Colce, where they caught him to the centre of the galaxy, Borgall for his trail. As Drake couldn't be transported in the La Muse, because his life-support machine was too big and he couldn't be disconnected from the machine, Éclair and Lumiere, together with Armbrust took an APD3330, an armour destroyer. On their travel, they were accompanied by the police. The Inspector, who accomplished them, was suspective of the two girls because of their child-like appearance and being part of the GOTT's Shadow Unit. He asked Armbrust to put his mind at ease about the girls, believing that the E.S activities were illegal and that Armbrust was ordered to accompanied the girls to supervise them. Their departure through the Warp-Gate had been delayed due to an accident. Because of that Éclair and the Inspector got into an argument. Éclair wanted to take another route, even if that was longer, because she believed staying in one place for too long was dangerous, while the Inspector thought that such a rash decision was just what the Insurers wanted. While they were waiting for their departure Éclair went to talk with the Inspector about how she got the feeling that the Inspector didn't like her and she thought it would be better if they would get along while working together. This lead to a discussion about their beliefs about being professional and enjoying their job. As the Inspector wanted to leave to go back to the ship, Smith informed Éclair about how the Inspector's family had been killed by a suspect he was after. The Inspector interrupted Smith and told a Éclair to not get the wrong idea and that he was not on a personal revenge trip, but that he was living his life by the letter of the law and punish those who don’t. Éclair argued that her belief had always been that the main purpose of the law was to protect and not to punish people. The Inspector decided against arguing further with Éclair and left to return to the ship’s control Zentrum. Some time later, as they were back in the ship’s control Zentrum, one of the officers picked up multiple targets as they were attacked by the Insurers. The Insurers attack the ships while keeping to the canons blind spots so that they can’t be shot by the police. This advantage didn’t hold long, as Lumiere reacted and dealt with them, using Puppet to destroy the Insurers’s machines, though she apologised as she believed she was a bit slow in dealing with them, but that besides some scratches on the ship’s paint no damage was dealt. After the first surprise had worn off, the Inspector ordered the main ship to be secured, only to learn that it already had been. After this attack, the girls, together with the Inspectors, departed through the Warp-Gate, leaving behind the rest of the police force, tat wasn’t on their ship. During the travel through the Warp-Gate, the Insures broke Darke free and handed him a gun, surprising him that they were actually part of the police force. While the Insurers were breaking Darke free, a member of the police noticed an abnormally during the status check. Reacting quickly Lumiere used Puppet again and showed that they had been tricked and their ship was damaged. The Inspector and Smith meanwhile were fighting the Insures, the Inspector being angry about how his own man betrayed him, while Smith commented that it was how he always said: “Just when you think you know somebody”. As Smith left, cover to shoot back at the Insurers but was hit himself, leaving the Inspector to worry and forgot his own cover. This spurred one of the Insurers to try and shoot the Inspector in the head from behind, which was unsuccessful as Éclair showed up, using her whip to rip the gun from the Insures hands and catching it herself. Seemingly completely unguarded one of the other Insures tried to shoot Éclair, only for her to throw the gun that she had taken from the other Insurer and throw it at him, knocking him out. Before running to handle the Insurers that were there on her own, Éclair thanked the Inspector for worrying about her. Because they stood no chance against Éclair, the Insurers retreated, back to the others. The Inspector stopped Éclair from running after them right away, first asking how Smith was doing, who assured him that he was fine and that it was only stinging a bit. After that Éclair and the Inspector followed the Insurers. As they were entering the room, the Insures were in, Éclair was mortally wounded, leaving the Inspector watch in horror as the young girl felt to the ground and remembering how he found out that his family was dead. His thoughts were cut short as he was shoot himself, though the bullet only scraping his arm. With both the Inspector and Éclair seemingly incapable of stopping him I anyway, Darke revealed that he, in fact, could leave his life-support machine, which he did. As the Inspector called him out about lying to them the whole time, Darke laughed and said that it all depends on the point of view, as he called, what other would call a cleverly concealed weapon-system, life support. Though Darke’s moment of victory didn’t last long as the Insures turned on him, because, as he was technical free from the authorities their contract had been fulfilled and as long as their business is done they had another client who had made a contract with the Insures to kill Drake. This led to Drake asking if it was Red and saying that he was long taken care of. The Insures leader revealed that it wasn’t their policy to reveal their client's identity, even if said client was dead. This lead to Éclair commenting on how it seemed that Darke’s life-supporting wasn’t working to good and revealed herself to be fully healed, surprising the others in the room. Throwing the metal pipe that had wounded her back at Darke’s machine, before jumping to take care of the Insures and Darke together with the Inspector. After they had them arrested and returned to the control Zentrum and rejoining with Lumiere and Armbrust. The ship left the Warp-Gate, at which the group noticed that they had been shot even further out in the frontier and that the rest of the Insures were waiting for them and that they couldn’t activate their shields because they had been cut. The Insures quickly noticed that their comrades weren’t in control of the ship they started to attack. The Insures started to attack, but before any serious harm was done to the ship the girls and the police were using, their own ships started to get destroyed. The police force was surprised at this as they didn’t get any readings on the sensors. Lumiere meanwhile was talking with Wirbelwind, saying that Wirblewind didn’t have to apologise as they were only a little shaken up and there was no harm done. The La Muse then went, after an order from Éclair, over to completely destroy the Insurers ships. After the battle was won and the Inspector being surprised about how much power the girls’ ship had. After all had been cleared, the Inspector told the girls, that it seemed that the Insurers had been blackmailing one of the Warp-Gate workers to force him to send the group out there. Continuing the conversation with Éclair he commented on how she was completely healed and that he would say that she had some illegal enhancements made to her body. Éclair in return asked the Inspector if he was thinking that she should be punished for breaking the law, only for the Inspector to say that in this case, it would be worth making an exception. In the end, Éclair and Lumiere received order to transport Darke the rest of the way in the La Muse. The Inspector joked that the frontier was no place for children, to which Éclair asked if the Inspector was worried, to which he agreed that, yes he was worried for all the poor fools trying o stop them. During that time Armbrust is shown with Darke, who is tied up and even had his mouth taped shut. Armbrust said that if Darke would offer to pay him twice as much as he paid the Insurers, he may be convinced to untie him and let him go. But then turned to leave saying that as Darke wasn’t saying anything, he would have to take his silence as a no and that Darke should forget that he mentioned anything and left, leaving Darke with trying to shout after him.